Central heater incubator system



May 23, 1933.

P. S. MARTIN CENTRAL HEATER INCUBATOR SYSTEM Filed Dec. L926 3 Sheets-Sheet l May 23, 1933.

P. s. MARTIN CENTRAL HEATER INCUBATOR SYSTEM Filed Dec. 1. 1926 s Sheets-She et 2 May 23, 1933. P, s, MARTIN 1,910,301

CENTRAL HEATER INCUBATOR SYSTEM Filed Dec. 1, 1926 s sheets-sheet 3 Patented May 23, 1933 HIE SI'ATES PER-RY S. BEAR-TIN, F HARRISONBURG,

MANUFACTURING C VIRGINIA FATE VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR T0 SHENANDOAH CENTRAL HEATER INCUIBATOR SYSTEM Application filed December 1, 1926. Serial No. 151,925.

heating wherein most, if not all, of the faults of the present existing systems are eliminated,

and whereby a much more accurate control of the heat in each deck can be secured while at the same time materially saving in the cost of operation due to two separate causes, one, the use of a lower grade of fuel, and the other, the elimination of a large part of the huge labor cost.

in important object of the invention is the provision of means for accelerating the flow of water thru an individual deck when its main valve is nearly closed. Another important object of the invention is the provision of a master compartment in each incubator deck and the placing in this compartment at the level of the egg trays of a powerful thormostat to control the main valve of the closed system for that deck.

Other and further objects of the present invention concern the method of heat transfer from one system to another, one of the systems being a primary system, and the other being a deck system.

Still further objects of the present invention concern more particularly details of the general heating system and the provision of means for rendering it possible to keep a much more close automatic control of any one deck or to entirely shut off any one deck from the primary system without in any way affooting the accuracy of control in the other decks of the same or other incubators.

When incubators first came into use they consisted of a single deck not very large,'there was naturally a single fire for the deck or incubator, and as improvements were made it became possble to provice a very satisfactory system, but soon the incubators increased in size and length, becoming a number of years back, of the type known as multiple dock mammoth incubators. While some of the larger hatcheries cave in a single unit from three to twelve of these multiple deck mammoth incubators, as far as I am aware, no attempt has even been made to heat all of these incubators from a single fire, but on the contrary these large hatcheries have a single fire for each of the incubators, and altho they have made attempts to heat two incubators from a heater placed between them and to control each deck automatically, I am not aware that any successful test has been made up to the time of my invention.

The amount of change in outside tempera ture from day to day and from day to night runs to very high figures, and in the hatcheries with which I am most familiar, this change will average about 30 F., rendering it quite a task to maintain each of the fires in proper condition to preserve the accurate range of temperature necessary in each of the decks in use. With the present invention I eliminate the separate fires and I provide a single furnace which I may locate approximately centrally of the main hatchery building, but I prefer not to have it in any of the incubator balls as I do not wish these halls or rooms to be affected by the heat radiated from the furnace.

It has been the custom to use anthracite coal for the incubator heating fire, which coal at times is 'diflicult to obtain, and at all times is considerably more expensive than the bituminous grades which unfortunately cannot be used in the modern systems, because of the inability to regulate the temperature of the fires to the degree of nicety absolutely essential in incubator work, but with mysystem, using asingle central heater, which is preferably heat-insulated from the incubator halls, I can use the bituminous coal with perfeet success,as I do not need such close adjustment of furnace temperature, since my controls are obtained in other ways, as described later.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective of a portion of a hatchery utilizing a plurality of multiple deck mammoth incubators and embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is a front elevation of a heat exchange tank or secondary circuit heater assembly for a triple-deck incubator.

Figure 8 is an end elevation thereof.

Figure 4 is a vertical section thru one of the secondary heaters, showing in detail the system of pipin The heat-er 10 is of such type that it may use the cheaper grades of fuel, and, as is customary in the art, is provided with an automatic control 15 connected to the dampers 16 by means of chains 17 the operation of the control 15 being well known and old, consisting merely of a float within the tank and governed by the expansion of the water in the system, so that when the water gets too hot and thereby expands the float in the tank 15 will rise and by means of the chain 17 will allow the front damper 16 to close and upon further movement will open the rear damper. In thepresent application I make no claim of any kind to this heater or its automatic control per se.

Since it is most difficult to maintain the temperature of both ends of an incubator room at the same degree when the heater is in the room, I prefer to insulate the heater from the rooms, and I accomplish this by partitioning off the heater from the rest of the rooms by providing walls 13 which entirely enclose the heater, and for the same purpose I insulate the pipe 20 with the usual magnesia covering.

The hot water from the heater rises vertically'and passes to the flow pipes 20 which may be located on each side of the heater,'that is, the preferred form of heating apparatus includes the heater centrally located in the building altho obviously the heater can be in one corner or anywhere else most convenient.

In Figure 1 only one hall is illustrated but the invention includes the use of two or more halls each having therein a number of mammoth incubators which may be all of the same size but if desired theincubators can be of different sizes as shown in this figure. The hot water descends thru the downcomers 21, one for each incubator and each preferably controlled by a gate valve 22 so that the supply of primary hot water from the heater can be entirely shut off from any one incubator without the necessity of shutting oil each of the'valves controlling the flow thru the inclividual decks From the downcomer 21 the hot water from the heater passes thru the chamber in a casting 24 which is the outer receptacle of a heat exchange device. A pipe 25'preferably having a valve 26 therein leads downwardly from the heat exchange device to the return pipe 27 leading directly back to the heater and preferably beneath the floor of the incubator hall. It is frequently convenient to use the primary hot water for directly heating the rooms themselves as well as for indirectly heating the incubators and with this purpose in mind there is indicated in Figure 1 a radiator 30 connected in circuit with the return pipe 2?.

lVhile the incubators may be single-deck may follow any standard practice.

or double-deck they are preferably all of the triple-deck type as in large hatcheries this size has been found most convenient. Referring particularly to Figure 3 each incubator deck such as 30a has at the end nearest automatic valve 40 which controls the rate of How of the secondary water.

4A is a vertical pipe connected by the L 41 and pipe 42 and L 43 to the return pipe 34 from the return manifold 35 of the coils in the incubator, the Specific form of piping within the incubator however, forming no part whatsoever of the present invention and Referring now particularly to Figure 4, the pipe 44; is connected by an L 45 to a nipple 46 secured to a T e7. In axial'alinement with the nipple at} is a pipe 48 which leads by the L 4-9 and nipple 50 to the bottom header 51 of the heat exchange device. The upper header 52 is connected with the valve T 55 by means of a nipple 54 and this valve T receives a coaxial stand-pipe 56 leading to the expansion tank 58 of the secondary system and also a right angular pipe 59 which leads to the secondary flow pipe 60 which in turn is connected to the pipe 33 and flow manifold '32.

he T 62 joining pipes 59 and 60 is in line with the T l7 and these Ts are connected by means of a by-pass pipe 63 so that under certain circumstances water may pass from the deck thru pipe at and return directly thru the L 45, nipple 46, T d7, by-pass 63, T 62 and vertically up thru the pipe 60 and back to the deck provided some hot water at least is passing thru the pipe 59 as, for example, when the valve e0 is partly open. Each of the headers 51 and 52 consist of a copper plate 66 and a shell or dome 67, these two pieces being secured together to form a chamher. All of the small copper pipes 68 are sweated into both of the copper plates 66 and are bowed as shown so as not only to provide increased heat transfer surface but also to eliminate the strains of expansion and contraction.

Under normal operation with the valve 40 wide open and the chamber of the casting 2% filled with hot water from the heater, the water flows in thru the pipe 43, L I9 and nipple 50 thru the series of pipes 68 to the upper header 52, thence thru the nipple 54, past the open valve and to the deck via pipes 59 and 60, under such circumstances there being no appreciable flow thru the by-pass 63. The valve rod which controls the valve 40 is connected to the lever 38 as at 71 and preferably passes thru the expansion stand pipe 56, the tank 58 serving merely as an expansion tank to receive excess water when the system is in use and to allow for loss by evaporation, etc. The lever 38 and associated members are balanced by a counterweight 72 which is adjustable along the free end of the lever 38 which latter is preferably pivoted to the tank as shown at 73.

In case the temperature in the master compartment is such that the thermostat 86 has very nearly closed the valve 40 the rate of flow thru the very long deck might be too slow to maintain the temperature at the far end of the deck at the desired degree in absence of the quite important by-pass 63. Assuming roughly that the temperature of the returning so-called cold Water from the deck in the pipes L4 and 46 is about 120 F. while the small amount of hot water leaking thru the pipe 59 is at a temperature of about 160 F, a very appreciable flow will be directed thru the bypass 63, the temperature of the water in this by-pass at such time being 120 F, i. e., the same as in the return pipe 44, and this volume of water will cause the water in pipe 60 leading to the deck to be chilled to a temperature very considerably less than 160 F. In this way a very appreciable flow of water will be caused to pass thru the in cubator even tho the amount of Water passing thru the heater is relatively very small and in this way the temperature at the far end of each deck can be regulated to an extreme degree of nicety, well within a single degree under adverse conditions.

While manually operated valves might readily be placed in each secondary system this is quite unnecessary as the flow can be stopped entirely by disconnecting the valve rod by mere removal of the cotter at 71.

What I claim is 1. In a hatchery, a central heater, a plurality of incubators wherein the temperature may not vary more than a few degrees, a heating system individual to each incubator, a heat transfer device forming part of the heating system of each incubator, a primary hot water heating system in heat transfer relation with each of said heat transfer devices and including said central heater, and means for shutting off any one of said heat transfer devices from the primary sys tem without affecting any of the other heat transfer devices.

In a mammoth hatchery, a plurality of superposed incubator decks, each consisting of a plurality of separated hatching chambers at one level, a closed liquid piping system extending throughout the length of each of said decks and entering each of said hatching chambers, automatic valves controlling the passage of liquid through said systems,

a primary heating system includinga heater and a plurality of heat transfer devices, each in heat transfer relation with the closed system of one of the incubator decks, and means for shutting off at will any one of said closed systems from the act-ion of its heat transfer device and thereby from the action of the primary system.

3. In a heating system for an incubator comprising a deck having a plurality of hatching compartments and a-master compartment at the same level, a pair of manifolds in said master compartment, piping extending thru the hatching compartments connecting said manifolds, a second system of piping connecting said manifolds, means for heating said second system and temperature responsive means in said master compartment for controlling the rate of flow thru said second system.

4. In an apparatus for heating incubators, a radiator adapted to be placed in an incubator, a heat transfer device, a pipe leading to the device from the incubator radiator, a pipe leading from the device to the incubator radiator, a temperature controlled valve in the last mentioned pipe, and a by-pass connecting the two pipes, said by-pass being vertical and coaxial with the pipe leading'to the radiator at its point of junction with said pipe.

5. In an apparatus for heating incubators, a radiator adapted to be placed in an incubator, a heat transfer device, a pipe leading to the device from the incubator radiator, a pipe leading from the device to the incubator radiator, a temperature controlled valve in the last mentioned pipe, and a by-pass con necting the two pipes, said bypass being vertical and coaxial with the pipe leading to the radiator at its point of junction with said pipe and'at right angles to the other pipe at its point of junction therewith.

6. In a device for heating incubators, a deck coil for heating a series of incubator compartments, a heat transfer device, an expansion tank, a pipe leading upward from the heat transfer device to the expansion tank, a valve in said pipe, piping connecting one side of the heat transfer device with the deck coil and connecting the other side of the heat transfer device beyond the valve with the deck coil to form a closed circuit including the deck coil and heat transfer device, means extending thru the expansion tank pipe for controlling the How of heated water to the deck coil and a bypass around the heat transfer device and valve for increasing the flow thru the deck when the valve is nearly closed.

7. In combination, a water receptacle, a water heater, means for connecting the water receptacle and heater to form a closed primary circuit, means for controlling the temperature of the water in the primary circuit, a plurality of pipes within the water receptacle providing a heat transfer system, an incubator deck coil, piping connecting the ends of said coil to said pipes in the water receptacle to form a closed secondary system, temperature responsive means for controlling the flow of water in said secondary system and a by-pass in the secondary system for short-circuiting the water receptacle and valve to maintain substantially the same rate of circulation-of the water in the secondary system when the valve is wide open as when the valve is nearly closed.

8. In a. heating system, a room to beheated, a closed system of piping located in part in the roe-mend thru which water passes to maintain the temperature of the room at a chosen degree, a second closedsystem of piping located entirely outside of said room, a heat interchange device connecting the two closed systems of piping in heat exchange re lation, niieans for heating the water in said second closed system and a by-pass connect ed across the first mentioned system to per mit water to circulate thru said first mentioned system without passing thru the heat interchange device.

9. In an incubator, a deck, a plurality of connected. pipes in said deck, further piping connecting the deck pipes to form a closed secondary system located in part outside of the deck, a primary closed system including a heater, a heat exchange device included in the primary and the secondary systems, an expansion tank connected to the closed see ondar y system, a thermostat Within the deck, a. valve in the secondary system located in proximity to the heat exchange device, and readily detachable means connecting the thermostat to the valve for automatic operation so that upon disconnecting the thermostat from the valve the valve will close oil the secondary system from the heat exchange device.

10. In a heating system, two closed sys tems of piping having a common heat exchange device, a by-pass in one of the closed systems connecting that system on both sides of the heat exchange device whereby a heating fluid may circulate thru said system including the by-pass without passing thru the heat exchange device, and an automatic valve located between the by-pass and the heatcxchange device so that upon a slight opening of the valve admitting fluid heated in the heat exchange device a flow will be created thru the by-pass thus causing a flow of fluid thru the system in which the by pass is located.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature.

PERRY S. MARTIN. 

